Search:

More info on Akkadian Empire

Akkadian Empire: Map

Advertisements

Wikipedia article:

Map showing all locations mentioned on Wikipedia article:

Royal Family of Akkad

The Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Akkad
(Sumerian: AgadeHittite KUR A.GA.DÈKI "land of Akkad"; Biblical
Accad) and its surrounding region (Akkadian URU Akkad KI)
in Ancient Iraq
(Mesopotamia).It reached the height of
its power between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the
conquests of king Sargon of
Akkad.

Because of the policies of the Akkadian Empire toward linguistic
assimilation, Akkad also gave its name to the predominant Semitic dialect: the Akkadian language, reflecting use of
akkadû ("in the language of Akkad") in the Old Babylonian
period to denote the Semitic version of a Sumerian text.

The city of Akkad

The form Agade appears in Sumerian, for example in the
Sumerian King List; the later
Assyro-Babylonian form Akkadû ("of or belonging to Akkad")
was likely derived from this. It is possible that the Sumerian
name, despite its unetymological spelling A.GA.DÈ, is from
AGA.DÈ, meaning "Crown of Fire" in allusion to Ishtar, "the brilliant goddess", whose cult was
observed from very early times in Agade. Centuries later, the
neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in
his archaeological records that Ishtar's worship in Agade was later
superseded by that of the goddess Anunit,
whose shrine was at Sippar—suggesting
proximity of Sippar and Agade. Despite numerous searches,
the city has never been found. One theory holds that Agade was
situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was
perhaps the oldest part of the city of Sippar. Another theory is that
the ruins of Akkad are to be found beneath modern Baghdad.
Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire.

The first
known mention of the city of Akkad is in an inscription of Enshakushanna of Uruk, where he
claims to have defeated Agade—indicating that it was in existence
well before the days of Sargon of
Akkad, who the Sumerian kinglist claims to have built
it.

History

Origins

Semitic speakers seem to have already been
present in Mesopotamia at the dawn of the historical record, and
soon achieved preeminence with the first Dynasty of Kish and numerous localities to the north of Sumer,
where rulers with Semitic names had already established themselves
by the 3rd millennium BC.One of these, contemporary with the last
Sumerian ruler, Lugal-Zage-Si of
Uruk, was Alušaršid who subdued Elam and Barahs,
according to inscriptions at Nippur. thus
beginning the trend towards regional empire.

Sargon has
often been cited as the first ruler of a combined empire of Akkad
and Sumer, although more recently discovered data suggests there
had been Sumerian expansions under previous kings, including
Lugal-Anne-Mundu of Adab, Eannatum of Lagash, and
Lugal-Zage-Si.

Sargon and his sons

The fame of the early establishers of Semitic supremacy was far
eclipsed by that of Sargon of Akkad
(Sharru-kin = "legitimate king", probably a title he took
on gaining power) (23rd century BC), who defeated and captured
Lugal-Zage-Si, conquering his empire.

One legend related of Sargon in neo-Assyrian times says that
"My mother was a changeling (?), my father I knew not.The brothers of my father loved the hills.My city is
Azurpiranu (the wilderness herb fields), which is situated on the
banks of the Euphrates.My
changeling mother conceived me, in secret she bore me.She
set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid.She cast me into the river which rose not over me.The
river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of water.Akki, the drawer of water, took me as his son and reared
me.Akki the drawer of water, appointed me as his
gardener.While I was gardener Ishtar granted me her love,
and for four and (fifty?) ... years I exercised
kingship."

Originally a cupbearer to a king of Kish with a Semitic name,
Ur-Zababa, Sargon thus became a gardener,
responsible for the task of clearing out irrigation canals. This
gave him access to a disciplined corps of workers, who also may
have served as his first soldiers. Displacing Ur-Zababa, the crown
was set upon Sargon's head, and he entered upon a career of foreign
conquest. Four times he invaded Syria and Canaan, and he spent three years thoroughly subduing
the countries of "the west" to unite them with Mesopotamia "into a
single empire."

However,
Sargon took this process further, conquering many of the
surrounding regions to create an empire that reached as far as the
Mediterranean
Sea and Anatolia, and extending his rule to Elam, and as far
south as Magan (Oman), an area
over which he reigned for 56 years.Trade extended from
the silver mines of Anatolia to the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan, the cedars of Lebanon and the copper of
Oman. This consolidation of the city-states of Sumer and
Akkad reflected the growing economic and political power of
Mesopotamia. The empire's breadbasket was the rain-fed agricultural
system of northern Mesopotamia and a chain of fortresses was built
to control the imperial wheat production.

Images of Sargon were erected on the shores of the Mediterranean,
in token of his victories, and cities and palaces were built at
home with the spoils of the conquered lands. Elam and the northern
part of Mesopotamia (Subartu) were also
subjugated and rebellions in Sumer were put down. Contract tablets have been found dated in the years
of the campaigns against Canaan and against Sarlak, king of
Gutium.

Sargon, throughout his long life, showed special deference to the
Sumerian deities, particularly Inanna, his patroness, and Zababa,
the warrior god of Kish. He called himself "The anointed priest
of Anu" and "the greatensiof Enlil" and his daughter, Enheduanna the famous poet, was installed as
priestess to Nanna at the
temple in Ur.

He also boasted of having subjugated the "four quarters"—the lands
surrounding Akkad to the north (Subartu), the south (Sumer), the
east (Elam) and the west (Martu). Some of
the earliest texts credit him with rebuilding the city of Babylon
(Bab-ilu) in a new location.More recently, some
researchers havestated that those sources may refer to Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire rather than Sargon
of Akkad.

Troubles multiplied toward the end of his reign. A later Babylonian
text states "In his old age, all the lands revolted against
him, and they besieged him in Akkad (the city)"…but "he
went forth to battle and defeated them, he knocked them over and
destroyed their vast army". Also shortly after, "the
Subartu (mountainous tribes of) the upper country—in their turn
attacked, but they submitted to his arms, and Sargon settled their
habitations, and he smote them grievously".

These difficulties broke out again in the reign of his sons.
Revolts broke out during the 9-year reign of his son, Rimush, who fought hard to retain the
empire—and in the fifteen year reign of Rimush's elder brother,
Manishtushu. The latter king seems to
have fought a sea battle against 32 kings who had gathered against
him. Both appear to have been assassinated.

Sargon left the legacy of having the worlds first empire.

Naram-Sin

Naram-Suen (Beloved of Sin), Sargon's grandson, who assumed the imperial title
of "King Naram-Sin, of the four quarters (Lugal Naram-Sîn, Šar
kibrat 'arbaim)", and, like his grandfather, was addressed as
"the god (Sumerian = DIN.GIR, Akkadian = ilu) of Agade"
(Akkad), also faced revolts at the start of his reign.

Naram-Sin
also recorded the Akkadian conquest of Ebla and
Armanum. To better police this area, he built a royal
residence at Tell Brak, a crossroads at
the heart of the Khabur basin of the Jezirah. Naram-Suen is supposed to have possessed an
army of over 360,000 men, the largest size of any state up until
that date. It enabled him to campaign against Magan (thought to be on the Arabian peninsula)
which also revolted; Naram-Sin, "marched against Magan and
personally caught Mandannu, its king". The chief threat seemed
to be coming from the northeastern mountaineers. A campaign against
the Lullubi led to the carving of the famous
"Victory Stele of Naram-Suen", now in the Louvre. This
newfound Akkadian wealth may have been based upon benign climatic
conditions, huge agricultural surpluses and the confiscation of the
wealth of other peoples.

The economy was highly planned. After the advancing Akkadian forces from
Tell Brak took the massive (100 acre) site
of Tell
Leilan, they destroyed nearby villages and brought the
organization of farming and grain distribution into its
bureaucratic control. Grain was cleaned, and rations of
grain and oil were distributed in standardized vessels made by the
city's potters. Taxes were paid in produce and labour on public
walls, including city walls, temples, irrigation canals and
waterways, producing huge agricultural surpluses.

In later Babylonian texts, the name Akkad, together with
Sumer, appears as part of the royal title, as in the
SumerianLUGAL KI.EN.GIRKI URUKI or
AkkadianŠar māt Šumeri u
Akkadi, translating to "king of Sumer and
Akkad". This title was assumed by the king who
seized control of Nippur, the
intellectual and religious center of southern Mesopotamia.

The fall of the empire established by Sargon seems to have been as
sudden as its rise, and little is known about the Gutian period.
From the fall of Akkad ca. 2083 BC until the Sumerian renaissance ca. 2050 BC, there
is much that is still dark.

The Sumerian King List,
describing the Akkadian Empire after the death of Shar-kali-shari,
states:

"Who was king?Who was not king?Irgigi the king; Nanum, the
king; Imi the king; Ilulu,
the king—the four of them were kings but reigned only three
years.Dudu reigned 21 years;
Shu-Durul, the son of Dudu, reigned 15
years.… Agade was defeated and its kingship
carried off to Uruk.In Uruk, Ur-ningin reigned 7 years,
Ur-gigir, son of Ur-ningin, reigned 6
years; Kuda reigned 6 years; Puzur-ili reigned 5 years, Ur-Utu reigned 6 years.Uruk was smitten
with weapons and its kingship carried off by the Gutian
hordes.

::(These kings of Uruk may have been contemporaries of the last
kings of Akkad.)

Evidence
from Tell
Leilan in Northern Mesopotamia shows what may have
happened. The site was abandoned soon after the city's
massive walls were constructed, its temple rebuilt and its grain
production reorganised. The debris, dust and sand that followed
show no trace of human activity. Soil samples show fine wind-blown
sand, no trace of earthworm activity, reduced rainfall and
indications of a drier and windier climate. Evidence shows that
skeleton-thin sheep and cattle died of drought, and up to 28,000
people abandoned the site, seeking wetter areas elsewhere. Tell
Brak shrank in size by 75%. Trade collapsed. Nomadic herders such
as the Amorites moved herds closer to
reliable water suppliers, bringing them into conflict with farmers.
This climate-induced collapse seems to have affected the whole of
the Middle East, and to have coincided with the collapse of the
Egyptian Old Kingdom.

This collapse of rain-fed agriculture in "the Upper Country" meant
the loss to southern Mesopotamia of the agrarian subsidies which
had kept the Akkadian Empire solvent. Water levels within the
Tigris and Euphrates fell 1.5 metres beneath the level of 2600 BC,
and although they stabilised for a time during the following Ur III
period, rivalries between pastoralists and farmers increased.
Attempts were undertaken to prevent the former from herding their
flocks in agricultural lands, such as the building of a wall known
as the "Repeller of theAmorites" between the Tigris and Euphrates
under the neo-Sumerian ruler Shu-Sin. Such
attempts led to increased political instability; meanwhile, severe
depopulation occurred to re-establish demographic equilibrium with the less favorable
climatic conditions.

It has also been suggested (Burroughs, 2008) that the rapid
climatic collapse, marking the Akkadian Dark Age, may have been
responsible for the religiously prescribed prohibition against the
raising and consumption of pigs that spread
through the Ancient Middle East from the end of the third
millennium BC.

The period between ca. 2050 BC and 1940 BC is sometimes called the
3rd dynasty of Ur or "Sumerian
Renaissance", founded by Ur-Namma
(originally a general). Documents again began to be written in
Sumerian, although Sumerian was becoming a purely literary or
liturgical language, much as Latin later would be in MedievalEurope.

The Curse

Later
material described how the fall of Akkad was due to Naram-Suen's
attack upon the city of Nippur. When
prompted by a pair of inauspicious oracles,
the king sacked the E-kur temple,
supposedly protected by the god Enlil, head of
the pantheon. As a result of this,
eight chief deities of the Anunaki pantheon
were supposed to have come together and withdrawn their support
from Akkad.

For the first time since cities were built and founded,

The great agricultural tracts produced no grain,

The inundated tracts produced no fish,

The irrigated orchards produced neither wine nor syrup,

The gathered clouds did not rain, the masgurum did not
grow.

At that time, one shekel's worth of oil was only one-half
quart,

One shekel's worth of grain was only one-half quart. . . .

These sold at such prices in the markets of all the
cities!

He who slept on the roof, died on the roof,

He who slept in the house, had no burial,

People were flailing at themselves from hunger.

For many years, the events described in "The Curse of Akkad" were
thought, like the details of Sargon's birth, to be purely
fictional. But now the evidence of Tell Leilan, and recent findings of elevated dust deposits in
sea-cores collected off Oman, that date to the period of Akkad's
collapse suggest that climate change
may have played a role.

Government

The Akkadian government formed a "classical standard" with which
all future Mesopotamian states compared themselves. Traditionally,
the ensi was the highest functionary of the Sumeriancity-states. In
later traditions, one became an ensi by marrying the
goddess Inanna, legitimising the rulership
through divine consent.

Initially, the monarchical lugal (lu = man,
gal = great) was subordinate to the priestly
ensi, and was appointed at times of troubles, but by later
dynastic times, it was the lugal who had emerged as the
preeminent role, having his own "é" (= house) or "palace",
independent from the temple establishment. By the time of
Mesalim, whichever dynasty controlled the
city of Kish was
recognised as šar kiššati (= king of Kish), and was
considered preeminent in Sumer, possibly because this was where the
two rivers approached, and whoever controlled Kish ultimately
controlled the irrigation systems of the other cities
downstream.

As Sargon extended his conquest from the "Lower Sea" (Persian
Gulf), to the "Upper Sea" (Mediterranean), it was felt that he
ruled "the totality of the lands under heaven", or "from sunrise to
sunset", as contemporary texts put it. Under Sargon, the
ensis generally retained their positions, but were seen
more as provincial governors. The title šar kiššati became
recognised as meaning "lord of the universe".

With Naram-Sin, Sargon's grandson, this went further than with
Sargon, with the king not only being called "Lord of the Four
Quarters (of the Earth)", but also elevated to the ranks of the
dingir (= gods), with his own temple establishment.
Previously a ruler could, like Gilgamesh,
become divine after death but the Akkadian kings, from Naram-Sin
onward, were considered gods on earth in their lifetimes. Their
portraits showed them of larger size than mere mortals and at some
distance from their retainers.

One
strategy adopted by both Sargon and Naram-Sin, to maintain control
of the country, was to install their daughters, Enheduanna and Enmenanna
respectively, as high priestess to Sin,
the Akkadian version of the Sumerian moon deity, Nanna, at Ur, in the
extreme south of Sumer; to install sons as provincial ensi
governors in strategic locations; and to marry their daughters to
rulers of peripheral parts of the Empire (Urkesh and
Marhashe). A well documented case ofthe later is that of
Naram-Sin's daughter Tar'am-Agade at Urkesh.

Economy

The population of Akkad, like all pre-modern states, was entirely
dependent upon the agricultural systems of the region, that seem to
have had two principal centres: the irrigated farmlands of southern
Iraq that traditionally had a yield of 30 grains returned for each
grain sown, making it more productive than modern farming; and the
rain-fed agriculture of northern Iraq, known as "the Upper
Country".

Southern Iraq during Akkadian period seems to have been approaching
its modern rainfall level of less than per year, with the result
that agriculture was totally dependent upon irrigation. Prior to
the Akkadian period the progressive salinisation of the soils, produced by poorly
drained irrigation, had been reducing yields of wheat in the southern part of the country, leading to
the conversion to more salt-tolerant barley
growing. Urban populations there had peaked already by 2,600 BC,
and ecological pressures were high, contributing to the rise of
militarism apparent immediately prior to the Akkadian period (as
seen in the stele of the vultures of Eannatum). Warfare between city states had led to a
population decline, from which Akkad provided a temporary respite.
It was this high degree of agricultural productivity in the south
that enabled the growth of the highest population densities in the
world at this time, giving Akkad its military advantage.

The water table in this region was very
high, and replenished regularly—by winter storms in the headwaters
of the Tigris and Euphrates from October to March, and from
snow-melt from March to July. Flood levels, that had been stable
from about 3,000 to 2,600 BC, had started falling, and by the
Akkadian period were a half-meter to a meter lower than recorded
previously. Even so, the flat country and weather uncertainties
made flooding much more unpredictable than in the case of the Nile;
serious deluges seem to have been a regular occurrence, requiring
constant maintenance of irrigation ditches and drainage systems.
Farmers were recruited into regiments for this work from August to
October—a period of food shortage—under the control of city temple
authorities, thus acting as a form of unemployment relief.
Some have
suggested that this was Sargon's original employment for the king
of Kish, giving him
experience in effectively organising large groups of men; a tablet
reads, "Sargon, the king, to whom Enlil permitted no
rival—5,400 warriors ate bread daily before him".

Harvest was in the late spring and during the dry summer months.
Nomadic Martu (Amorites) from the northwest would pasture their
flocks of sheep and goats
to graze on the stubble and be watered from the river and
irrigation canals. For this privilege, they would have to pay a tax
in wool, meat, milk, and cheese to the temples, who would
distribute these products to the bureaucracy and priesthood. In
good years, all would go well, but in bad years, wild winter
pastures would be in short supply, nomads would seek to pasture
their flocks in the grain fields, and conflicts with farmers would
result. It would appear that the subsidizing of southern
populations by the import of wheat from the north of the Empire
temporarily overcame this problem , and it seems to have allowed
economic recovery and a growing population within this
region.

As a result, Sumer and Akkad had a surplus of agricultural
products, but was short of almost everything else, particularly
metal ores, timber and building stone, all of which had to be
imported. The spread of the Akkadian state as far as
the "silver mountain", the "cedars" of Lebanon, and the copper
deposits of Magan (modern Oman), was
largely motivated by the goal of securing control over these
imports. One tablet reads "Sargon, the king of Kish, triumphed in thirty-four battles (over the
cities) up to the edge of the sea (and) destroyed their walls.He
made the ships from Meluhha (the Indus civilization), the ships from
Magan (and) the ships from Dilmun (Bahrein) tie up alongside the quay of Agade.Sargon the king prostrated himself
before (the god) Dagan (and) made supplication
to him; (and) he (Dagan) gave him the upper land, namely Mari, Yarmuti, (and) Ebla, up to the
Cedar Forest (and) up to the Silver Mountain".

[The
location of the "Silver Mountain" is uncertain, but it is believed
to have been in the Taurus Mountains, in southern Anatolia.]

Inscriptions from much later tell of a
campaign as far as Purushkanda, believed
to have been on one of the tributaries of Lake
Beyşehir.The same inscription tells of securing the
trade from Kaptara, believed to be the Akkadian name for the
location known to Egyptians as Keftiu, probably either Cyprus or the
Minoan civilisation of Crete, or
both.

Culture

Art

A bas
relief representing Naram-Sin, and bearing a striking
resemblance to early Egyptian
art in many of its features, has been found at Diyarbakır, in modern Turkey.Babylonian
art, however, had already attained a high degree of excellence;
two cylinder seals of the time of
Sargon are among the most beautiful specimens of the gem-cutter's art ever discovered.

Poet - priestess Enheduanna

Sumerian written literature achieved an extremely high degree of
excellence in the Akkadian period, principally in the work and
example of Enheduanna.
Enheduanna, the "wife (Sumerian "dam" = high priestess) of
Nanna [the Sumerian moon god] and daughter of
Sargon" of the temple of Sin at Ur, who lived ca. 2285-2250 BC, is
the first poet in history whom we know by name.
Her known works include hymns to the goddess Inanna, the Exaltation of Inanna and
In-nin sa-gur-ra. A third work, the Temple Hymns,
a collection of specific hymns, addresses the sacred temples and
their occupants, the deity to whom they were consecrated. The works
of this poetess are significant, because although they start out
using the third person, they shift to the first person voice of the
poet herself, and they mark a significant development in the use of
cuneiform. As poetess, princess, and priestess, she was a
personality 'who set standards in all three of her roles for many
succeeding centuries...', according to William W Hallo

In the Exultation of Inanna,

"Enheduanna depicts Inanna as disciplining mankind as a goddess
of battle. She thereby unites the warlike Akkadian Ishtar's qualities to those of the gentler Sumerian
goddess of love and fecundity. She likens Inanna to a great storm
bird who swoops down on the lesser gods and sends them fluttering
off like surprised bats. Then, in probably the most interesting
part of the hymn, Enheduanna herself steps forward in the first
person to recite her own past glories, establishing her
credibility, and explaining her present plight. She has been banished
as high priestess from the temple in the city of Ur and from
Uruk and exiled to the steppe.She begs the moon god
Nanna to intercede for her because the city of Uruk, under the
ruler Lugalanne, has rebelled against Sargon. The rebel,
Lugalanne, has even destroyed the temple Eanna, one of the greatest
temples in the ancient world. Further, he has dared to equate
himself as an equal to the new high priestess and--in the most
ancient recorded instant of sexual harassment--made sexual advances
to the high priestess, his sister-in-law."

Technology

One tablet from this period reads, "(From the earliest days)
no-one had made a statue of lead, (but) Rimush king of Kish, had a
statue of himself made of lead.It stood before Enlil; and it recited his (Rimush's) virtues to the
idu of the gods". Akkadian artists also discovered the
"lost wax" method of bronze
casting, previously believed to have been discovered much later, at
the time of classical Greece.

Achievements

The empire was bound together by roads, along which there was a
regular postal service. Clay seals that took
the place of stamps bear the names of Sargon and his son. A
cadastral survey seems also to have been
instituted, and one of the documents relating to it states that a
certain Uru-Malik, whose name appears to indicate his Canaanite origin, was governor of the land of the
Amorites, or Amurru as the
semi-nomadic people of Syria and Canaan were
called in Akkadian. It is probable that the first collection of
astronomical observations and terrestrial
omens was made for a library established by Sargon. The
"limmu" calendrical system, used
henceforth in Mesopotamian history, whereby which years were named
by one significant event, and these were listed, also began in the
Akkadian period.

[2] Tar'am-Agade, Daughter of Naram-Sin, at
Urkesh, Buccellati, Giorgio and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati, in Of
Pots and Plans. Papers on the Archaeology and History of
Mesopotamia and Syria presented to David oates in Honour of his
75th Birthday, London: Nabu Publications, 2002